GOSPEL POWER |MAY 8, 2021 SATURDAY | 5th Week of Easter

 Gospel: Jn 15 : 18 – 21

Jesus said to his disciples, “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world — therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘Servants are not greater than their master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.”

REFLECTION

Persecution is a dreaded experience, because it threatens  life. But Jesus speaks of it as a sure sign of belonging to  him and bearing his name. The “world” — which is used  here in its extremely negative sense to refer to those who reject Jesus’  saving mission — hates Jesus because it is under the dominion of  Satanic forces that oppose God. Love is alien to these forces. The  love that binds believers to Jesus is an insult to them, thus they  also hate those who bear the name of Jesus and subject them to  the same violence to which they have subjected Jesus. To be in the  world, yet not to allow the world to make its claims on us will be an  ongoing challenge of faithfulness. Experiencing persecution is being  conformed to the pattern of Jesus’ faithful life.

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, we hold on to your promise that your Holy Spirit will supply  us with strength to bear witness to you in trying circumstances. Amen.